


a secure dwelling and undisturbed resting place

by soitgoes



Category: The Devil All the Time (2020)
Genre: Character Death, Gen, I will make something, but also I wrote it, in like 30 min, ok this was sad, shippy and nice later
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:42:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26688349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soitgoes/pseuds/soitgoes
Summary: "Then the thought of enlisting got into his brain..."A sad ending to a sad story.
Relationships: Arvin Russell & Lenora Laferty, Lenora Laferty/Arvin Russell
Comments: 3
Kudos: 15





	a secure dwelling and undisturbed resting place

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lofticries](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lofticries/gifts).



> uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh. so this is just an angst-fest. also the thought of Arvin enlisting with Lenora's name to avoid the law but also.....also to keep some part of her with him makes me want to cry so I thought I'd share.
> 
> sorry, maddy. sorry I made this. but I dedicated it to you cuz I am mean and terrible.

The nurse's name is Emily and she'd only been at her posting for a couple of weeks. And in that time, she'd seen more gore and death than she could have ever imagined even existed in the whole of human history. She can still remember back in school how they'd heard about how the South had fallen to the Union and how many lives had been lost, more than she could even comprehend on either side but even then, she could not have imagined what she's seen these past fifteen days in Vietnam. And yet, none of what she'd seen so far could prepare her for the boy, for Arvin.

He'd been brought in with a batch of wounded and just by looking at him, Emily knew he was too far gone. His skin was ashen, dark circles under his eyes, and his thin lips were red, not with flush, but with the remnants of blood. Had it not been for the slow, stuttering rise and fall of his chest, Emily would have thought he was dead already. She could not explain it, how she felt when she saw him, saw his name on the chart and thought to herself that she had at least three cousins name "Arvin" herself and that this boy could have been one of any of them, was probably around their age. And against all logic, against all odds, she wished and prayed that he would survive. Emily hoped for a miracle. He was dead before evening.

* * *

She'd waited with him until the attending physician came and made the declaration of death official. Emily had never been much for scripture but she'd learned some from the more senior nurses and she recited over the boy what little she knew.

_Then my people will live in a peaceful habitation..._

It wasn't that she'd wanted to speak to the doctor. The elder man had been nothing but harsh and dismissive to Emily and the other nurses. He was a callous and ill-tempered old man and up until then, Emily had made it a point to never speak to him unless absolutely necessary. But Emily felt that she need to ask him about what the boy had said before he passed. She felt she owed it to him at least.

"You're certain that he had no family?"

As soon as the question tumbles from her mouth, Emily regrets it. She can already feel the sting of the attending's glare. More than once, she'd heard him lecture some of the other girls, "damn, chatty twits", he called them.

_Weren't they aware that a war was going on? There was no time or place for gossip._

But what he failed to realize was that was exactly the point. They were all trying their best to stay sane, stay alive, in whatever way they could, but it wasn't gossip that had moved her tongue to move. It was something else. Pity, maybe.

"I am _very_ certain, nurse. Do you have any reason to think otherwise?"

Dr. Rollins had been a small town physician for his whole career before being drafted. He'd seen death before. Lost a few old timers in his hometown but he had been lucky enough that out of the nearly fifty children he'd delivered, only one had been a still-born. Rollins had been proud that he'd overseen life more than he dealt with death. But the war had taken that from him and he feared that he would lose far more to it before it was through. He stared down at the nurse. She hadn't answered his question, opting to stare down at the deceased soldier who lay silent in his cot. He couldn't recall her name, Emery? Emma? She was new and looking at her now, Rollins can't help but think she's far too young to be in this war, any war really but who was old enough for war anyway? Had there ever been anyone, because of the number of years they had lived, could be deemed worthy of dying the way that these men and women had died? 

"It's just....I was here with him, when he... _passed_."

Rollins winces at the polite phrasing. He doesn't know that Emily too has winced. Neither of them realize that they are thinking the same thing, that she is still too soft for what they are doing here.

"Yes?" Rollins says, a little more harshly than he means to. "Spit it out."

"He mentioned...that he wanted to go home."

"We all want to go hom-" he begins exasperated.

Rollins was about to give her an earful. What was she thinking wasting his time like this? But before he can tear into her, the nurse continues.

"He asked for a Nora. That was the last thing he said, that he was going home to 'his Nora'."

Many dying men asked for a woman they'd left back home. He'd heard men cry out for their wives, their sisters. Most asked for their mothers at least once before going. There was nothing new or uncommon about young man's desire.

"I asked about who would be sending word to his kin and all they told me was that he didn't have none. But...but if that were true then why would he-why? If he has someone waiting for him back home, don't you think we should send notice? It wouldn't be right to leave his Nora waiting. Always wondering, never knowing."

The doctor looks down at the young man's chart, Arvin Laferty. He'd only been eighteen years old.

"I'll see what can be done for him, nurse," Rollins responds not knowing why.

There was nothing that could be done for the boy now but his words seems to be what the nurse wants to hear. She rises from her seat beside the cot. As she passes, Rollin catches her eye and sees the unshed tears shining within them. Once she's gone, Dr. Rollins spared a few moments more for Arvin Laferty. He was one of the lucky few to look peaceful in death. He looked at ease and Rollins can't help but wish that in one way or another the boy had found some relief now.

"I hope you made it back, Mr. Laferty," he murmurs under his breath. 

Back home, back to his Nora.


End file.
